Tutor information
Jonathan Darnborough
Jonathan Darnborough is Director of Studies in Music and Departmental Lecturer in Music at Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. He is a composer and pianist and has worked in continuing education throughout his career. He was a prize-winner in the 1992 Franco-Italian Piano Competition in Paris and he has performed throughout Britain, as well as in Europe, the USA and Indonesia.
Courses
The aim of musical analysis is to understand how music exerts such a powerful effect on us. This course introduces some of the main approaches as we attempt to bridge the gap between our intuitions about music and our intellectual knowledge of it.
Explore piano repertoire, interpretation and technique in a lively mixture of talks and workshops, in which all students will have regular opportunities to play. This class is open to players of all levels and students may join the class in any term.
Explore piano repertoire, interpretation and technique in a lively mixture of talks and workshops, in which all students will have regular opportunities to play. This class is open to players of all levels and you may join the class in any term.
Writers and composers have always influenced one another, in every age. Explore these intertwined influences as the Romantic era gives way to the hedonism of the Jazz age in the aftermath of the First World War.
Music is all around us, woven into the fabric of our lives. Explore some of the properties of music that might hold the key to its power over our minds, our bodies, our social lives and even our souls at this day event in Oxford.
Explore piano repertoire, interpretation and technique in a lively mixture of talks and workshops, in which all students will have regular opportunities to play. This class is open to players of all levels and students may join the class in any term.
The piano was, for Beethoven, his most personal means of expression and his monumental cycle of piano sonatas is one of the pinnacles of western music. This course will explore these works chronologically.
A musical journey through the piano repertoire. In each lecture Jonathan Darnborough turns the spotlight on a single iconic piano work, with illustrations from the piano followed by a performance of the piece.
In this late work Mozart shows himself at his subtlest, achieving that Holy Grail for all creative artists, beauty with simplicity. This lecture is part of the 'A Pianist Explores' lecture series – providing a musical journey through the piano repertoire.
The poet Rellstab compared the first movement of this iconic work with the play of moonlight on the waters of a lake. Concealed beneath the dreamy surface of this movement, however, is a structure every bit as tight as anything Beethoven ever wrote.
Reacting against the empty display of variations by the virtuosi of his day, Mendelssohn wrote his Variations Sérieuses as a homage to Beethoven. Basing them on a poignant theme, Mendelssohn explores a wide range of moods, ending in a jubilant finale.
In this famous Nocturne, Chopin combines the dreamy with the dramatic in an apparently improvisatory stream of consciousness that belies the time he devoted to its composition. This lecture is part of the 'A Pianist Explores' lecture series.
In his D major Prelude, Rachmaninoff weaves one of his characteristic extended melodies and builds towards a climax of shattering intensity. This lecture is part of the 'A Pianist Explores' lecture series.
Described by Horowitz as the most difficult piano piece ever written, legend has it that this sonata came to Scriabin in a dream. This lecture is part of the 'A Pianist Explores' lecture series – providing a musical journey through the piano repertoire.
The works of Elgar and Vaughan Williams represent a vibrant resurgence of creativity and innovation in the English musical landscape, inspiring generations of composers, including Holst, Delius and Walton. This course explores their music and legacy.
The rich combination of soloists, chorus and orchestra has inspired composers to produce some of their most profound works. We will study ten of these masterpieces, from Bach to Britten, exploring the text, music and historical background.
Baroque music, with its combination of expressiveness and virtuosity, is immensely popular - but not always well understood. This course aims to provide insight into the work of, among others, Corelli, Vivaldi, Bach and Handel.
This course will start with Verdi's first great success, Nabucco, and then chart his development through the lyrical triumphs of his middle period, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata, to the great Shakespearean masterpieces of his final years.